The brilliance of the master printmaker Paul Landacre owed something to the patronage of Hollywood royalty but a great deal more to the dynamism of early California modernism.
Rockwell Kent and Edward Hopper: Looking out, Looking Within
Consider Rockwell Kent’s paintings of land and sea as modern American mindscapes—poetic distillations of remote places that probe the mysteries of life. Kent hoped viewers would lose themselves in contemplation before his haunting visions.1 “Essentials only ought to go into painting,” he insisted. “I want the elemental, infinite thing; I want to paint the rhythm of eternity.”2 He perceived the …
The gold dust twins: Thomas Hart Benton, Walt Disney, and the mining of frontier mythology
Fig. 1. Thomas Hart Benton (1889–1975), c. 1944. Gelatin silver print, 9 ¼ by 7 ¼ inches. Private collection. Fig. 2. Walt Disney (1901–1966) by George Hurrell (1904–1992). Gelatin silver print, 9 by 7 inches. Courtesy of Laguna Art Museum and Walt Disney Company © Estate of George Hurrell. In March 1946 Thomas Hart Benton (Fig. 1) …